A Break in Routine, A Good Thing

One of the pleasant aspect of holidays is the break from the daily routine. You can sleep in, lounge around in your pajamas, stay out all night, and spend your time in any way you please.

Although I do enjoy the rest, I have spent much of my holiday doing things I wanted to do but never had the time to do before. In the past week, I have gratefully read four non-medically related books, seen old friends that are outside the bubble that is medical school and done much of the simple and appreciated things of life. Write, sing, laugh, study.

It is in these calm moments, when the bustle of a busy schedule slows down, that I find motivation to re-energize myself. A time when I can step back and reevaluate the directions of my life and make adjustments and lasting changes. Every year at this time, I think and write a summary and reflection of the year. I’m looking forward it.

Some questions I think about are

What were my goals that I set for myself last year?

How many of those goals did I accomplish? What went right and wrong?

Is there something I could have done differently? How could I have improved?

Were there any changes and deviations to my goals?

What did I learn? How have I grown as a person?

What am I looking forward to in the New Year? Is there anything I am going to do differently?

What are my goals for the next 6 months, 12 months, 18 months and 5-10 years

I find it strange to have an inbox not flooded with emails each day. I have more free time than scheduled appointments. The change of pace is gladly welcomed. It is these different moments of irregular routines that we can pursue new things and experiment. That is why I think summers, especially the last few that I have left, will be very valuable. A large block of free time is increasingly harder to find as we grow up. We get more responsibilities, commitments and “grown-up” things to do.

Sometimes we just need some free time to travel, discover, grow and enjoy.

Not much time to update these days, but found this excellent blog post that needed to be shared. http://dharmarajkarthikesan.com/2015/05/09/dear-doctors-be-kind-to-each-other/ Too many times I’ve seen patients turfed Read More »